Joe33472

On the first day, the lunch menu was still in the menu folder along with the dinner menu for dinner service. I thought that was weird, but that makes sense now. The dinner menu must have been covering the a la carte menu. I overheard a nearby table ask for some menu, they must have been asking for the a la carte menu. The head waiter brought something over, but not sure if they ordered off that menu. I don't think so. It was a state of chaos on the first night and we did not have a nice experience. It was actually quite shocking, but has improved 100%.

We've actually enjoyed the appetizers so far. Most have been okay and so small that if you like the appetizer you'll be wanting for more, and if you don't like the appetizer so small that you won't feel badly not eating any of it. With so many courses, we've never been hungry. This fried goat cheese appetizer was really god, but this is a small plate and the fritter was really small as seen on the plate. I'd say this is a 1/2 dollar sized and about 1/4 inch thick. I think that this could have had two or three of the fritters. The tomato tart last night was really good. Forgot to take a picture. That was a little bigger. I was expecting a shortbread crust, but it was a puff pastry so light and airy and about the size of a small rice cake.

One last thing I forgot to mention, a individual sitting very close to us is somewhat of an Internet "celebrity" or "social media influencer" who blogs on travel. It's not Gary or Emma, but on that level, maybe even more subscribers. I think the YouTuber has over a million subscribers on YouTube and several hundred thousand on Instagram. Maybe the staff figured out who this YouTuber is and didn't want me talking trash about the service and food. I recognized the person last night, but haven't said anything.

Day 3 program attached: Day 3 Programme.pdf I tried to go by the Britannia restaurant tonight to make a photo of the menu, but it was a mob scene at the entrance on deck 2. We had already changed back into smart attire and everyone at the Britannia entrance looked so fancy, that I didn't want to barge up there to take some photos in our smart attire. I'll definitely try tomorrow to get some pictures. Tired now, although we get an hour back tonight. A really nice day on QM2 overall. Good night!

I never fly out of EWR, so I'm not too familiar with the prices to Jersey. Back in the day I would only take public transportation to the airport. I had a health issue that made walking long distances tough, so I started taking Uber and a car service to the airport. The health issue resolved, but I never started back on public transportation 🙃. Definitely lifestyle creep. I work in Queens and would take the Q31 to Jamaica Center and AirTrain to Kennedy. Did that for years. $7.50 with no tip, back in the day. I fly a lot (maybe 50 flights per year) so $100 Uber rides add up....

Some transfer information for Brooklyn was dropped off in the room tonight. We have a coop in NYC and will be stopping there for one night after the cruise before we make our way to Boston/Manchester NH area to visit our families. I'm thinking that we'll just take a cab or perhaps I'll see if the car service which I usually use will pick us up. I can imagine that it's pretty hectic at the cruise terminal in Brooklyn and that a cab line could be long. The private transfer prices seem a little bit more than I would typically pay for an airport transfer to JFK or LGA, but I thinking that they have to factor in waiting time at the cruise terminal, so maybe it's not too bad. The car service I usually use is Carmel.

We had a wonderful dinner in QG and service was spot on. What a difference between today and yesterday as far as food and service. It's like night and day. Does anyone think that Cunard social media folks monitor this board? It wouldn't be too difficult to figure out who we are based on my user name and location. Perhaps it's just the craziness of embarkation day and the fact that we were a little grumpy yesterday, and the two not mixing well together. In tonight's menu, there was an a la carte menu. This wasn't in the menu last night, so perhaps on embarkation they try to keep special requests to a minimum. Here is the A la Carte menu: 6.24.24 Queens Grill A la Carte Menu.pdf We could definitely eat off this menu. For tonight's meal, Osman had Turkish salad prepared for us as well as roast chicken. Both were delicious. The assistant Maitre D' carved the chicken at the table and prepared a wonderful gravy. We skipped dessert because we were so full. Excellent meal and service. Top notch! A++

Thanks for the heads up about the laundry! This is hugely helpful! I was wondering when we might do our laundry, so I think that this is a good strategy. Maybe tomorrow night. I must admit, however, that we're part of the 18:00 dining crowd. Although we made it to 18:30 tonight. And we're definitely not octogenarians yet, but were the only ones in the QG restaurant at that time. 🤷‍♂️ I guess we're early birds. Thanks again!

Yes, it's amazing how great the Internet has been (knocking on wood!). Meeting went great with video sharing. I didn't open my camera, which likely helped with bandwidth. Some connection issues when switching devices, but overall A+ with Starlink. I purchased the two device plan, so we have some issues with switching between devices, but not a big deal. We just have too many devices we'd like to connect to the Internet all at the same time. First world problems 🙃

We went to afternoon tea in the Grills Lounge and it was very nice affair. We enjoyed the finger sandwiches, desserts, and scones. We're going attend tea in the Queens Room at some point, but we wanted a low key venue this afternoon. There weren't too many people in the lounge so it was really nice and quiet. We needed something quiet. Now, we're really stuffed and could use a nap, but I have a work meeting in 15 minutes. Hopefully the Internet holds out. 😀 Should be fine, as right now there is definitely sufficient bandwidth for a zoom meeting.

That's exactly what I was thinking I would do if someone else doesn't post. It will give us something else to do on a daily basis going forward! 😀

Yes, it definitely could be an embarkation day thing. Hopefully, this is the turning point.

If someone else doesn't post, I can definitely take some photos and post online.

Hi Jack, Yes, lobster and also Chateaubriand. We really like beef tenderloin, but think that it's tough to cook Chateaubriand to the temperature that we prefer. Unfortunately, neither us eat seafood, or we would definitely have had the lobster. Both our families would go crazy for the lobster. Lunch is QG was great today. So, maybe everything was embarkation day pressures. Joe

Thanks RK-NC! Yes, today is going much better. We went to lunch and had a very lovely meal. We started with the tomato tart with blue cheese and it was so good we forgot to take a picture. Next we had ravioli and ended the meal with sticky toffee pudding. All the food was served at the right temperature and served at a perfect pace. The best part of the meal was that Osman came over and asked if we're okay for dinner (which we were struggling on what we would eat) and he offered to have something made for us. We took him up on the offer, so we'll see how that works out. I think we might actually try breakfast there tomorrow morning.

Wow! That's great that the Queen Anne has both A & C in the cabins. It's going to take a long time for USB-A ports and cables to go away (if ever). I was so glad when the EU pushed Apple to go to USB-C. I don't think they would have ever done it without that push. So, thank you EU.

Today's menus: 6.24.24 Queens Grill Menus .pdf6.24.24 Queens Grill Menus .pdf

Went to the lounge and the concierge was very nice and let me know that on the US Grills Promo that the drinks are charged and then credited back the next morning at 10:30 a.m. I'll have to keep an eye on that. I remember reading posts about signing each drink tab, but didn't realize that things are charged then reversed. Good to know. I also forgot to mention last night that we went to the casino and asked for the non-smoking section and was informed that there is no smoking in any area of the casino. Bravo Cunard! We're super excited to spend some time in a smoke free casino. That's brilliant. I'm sure I knew this at some point, but now that we're on board it's really nice to know.

I'm going to wait to see how things go today and if we continue to have issues, I will let them know.

I've been posting the daily programs and menus in PDF format since it's multiple pages and thought it would be easier for viewing. Would pictures be better? Definitely would be less work on my part than converting and combining in PDF format.

No problem, the hanger and pillow discussion got intertwined with the restaurant issues. I did mention that QM2 was probably built before USB. I was trying to be funny.... I hardly ever use USB ports, and for that matter all of our devices use USB-C and I would never expect the QM2 or any cruise ship to have USB-C ports.

Thanks! We're hoping things are better for us today too. Maybe it was just an embarkation day thing.

We will definitely have to bring food and service issues to their attention at some point. We'll see how things go today. As far as the stateroom, we knew what to expect after watching many videos and the stateroom has actually exceeded our expectations. It's a quite lovely space and even though dated, we have no issues with this suite. We have more outlets than we could ever use; a comfortable bed and pillows; huge closet; and normal hangers. Very spacious and nice sized TV which actually faces the couch and bed. Our stateroom gets an A+. We have absolutely no problems.

Here are the room service menus for regular food and the door tag for breakfast.

Good morning! Slept really well. The bed was very comfortable (as many say about Cunard) and no problems with the abundant pillows. Checked my online account and it appears that we're being charged for drinks although we're supposed to have the Grills drink promo. Will make a trip to the lounge to see if they can fix it there or if I have to go to guest services.